


Lost On You

by VolxdoSioda



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Carbuncle works to save his favorite human, M/M, Noctis learns about Ardyn in a different way, Pre-Slash, and plots accordingly to fix their future, dream walking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 23:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17948870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Noctis' beginning with Ardyn starts in dreams, in the rains of Altissia."You need to keep watch. This man is important."





	Lost On You

**Author's Note:**

> Blame goes to Seito, who mentioned how much trouble could have been avoided if Noctis learned about what was going to happen and could work to prevent it.

_"You need to keep watch,"_ Carbuncle tells him while he sleeps.  _"This man is important."_

In his dreams, they're in a city across the sea.  It's raining, and there are people walking around, but their faces blurred.

All except one.

He has red hair that seems to fade to purple in the right light, cropped short beneath his hat. He's wearing layers upon layers of clothing, and carries no umbrella, reaching up to greet the rain with a twist of the lips. His eyes are a beautiful gold, haunting, piercing. At his feet, the shadows are thick. 

"Who is he?" Noctis asks, not moving from where he sits. He can feel the chill of the rain on his body, even though it's just a dream. Carbuncle's dreams always feel real, which is part of the reason he likes them so much. 

His chest aches the longer he looks at the man. He can't explain it, young as he is, but he feels like he  _knows_ this man.

 _"His name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum,"_ Carbuncle says softly, with eyes that understand just what it is Noctis feels.  _"And he has been promised to  you as your Hunted."_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

"Dad? Did Somnus have a brother?"

Regis pauses mid-word in the story, frowning as he thinks of his son's question. "I think he might have. Why the sudden interest, Noctis?"

His son is unusually pale as of late. He's been asking for more stories about the Old Kings, especially those close to Somnus' era. It might be nothing. Maybe he's just coming down with a cold, and wanting older stories to make him feel better.

Or maybe the Crystal is trying to tell him something.

"I think," Noctis begins, and then stops. "Actually, you know what, never mind."

"No, what is it, Noctis? You can tell me."

Noctis shakes his head, smiling up at him. "It's okay Dad. I'll ask Carbuncle, later. Go ahead with what you were saying about Somnus' reign."

Regis waits an extra moment, just in case Noctis changes his mind again, but his son merely leans back against the pillows and closes his eyes, like he's preparing to go to sleep.

"...Alright then.  _And so it was, beginning with the taming of Duscae--"_

Regis won't realize it until later, but he has given Noctis a far better idea of what he'll need to do to make the future a better place. 

For now however, he reads to his son, and quietly worries.

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

Ardyn doesn't always appear in Altissia. Sometimes he's over in Lucis. Sometimes even in Insomnia. But Noctis learns the more he dreams that if its raining, it's almost a guarantee that Ardyn will appear. All Noctis has to do then is look, and he'll find him. In the rain, faces blur and swim, all except Ardyn, who remains as crystal-clear as ever.

Noctis learns in his dreaming that he and Ardyn are what Carbuncle calls  _a fated pair of mortals._ Souls who have been wrapped in the threads of Fate, not necessarily for anything they've done. Sometimes, Carbuncle explains, Lady Etro wants to challenge life, see it flourish in a different way, and so she sends down challenges to test them. The people chosen to confront and either fail or win over the challenge are what most of the Gods call  _prophecy-bound._

 _"It's fancy wording is all,"_ Carbuncle says with a flick of the tail.  _"But the long and short of it is you two will follow each other in life and in death, circling until at last you collide."_

"Why?"

Carbuncle sighs in that way that makes him seem so much older than he looks.  _"Because such deaths are needed to provide new life to the universe. It's a balance."_

"So..." He looks at Ardyn in the low light of Hammerhead, rain making everything seem so much darker. There are no daemon-repelling lights out here, so Ardyn can come here. "When I meet him, will I die?"

_"No. Not unless he wishes it. He might. But we-- there's a method. A method, a route, a... way."_

"Do I have to follow the path?"

Carbuncle shakes his head.  _"There are many paths, Noctis. You choose how this goes. You and he. The Gods will want it to go one way, but you can take it any way you want. Peaceful, or violently."_

Ardyn's eyes stare at far-off points, lips pressed tight as he gazes. He's beautiful, Noctis can't help but think. And it's not fair, what his brother did. What any of them did. 

"I'm going to help him, Carbuncle. No matter what, no matter how long it takes. I promise, I'm going to help him find his peace."

Carbuncle says nothing, but all too soon the rainclouds begin to clear. Ardyn lifts his head, sneers at the light of the sun, and begins to walk off into the distance, following the clouds to their next destination. Noctis waves to him as he goes, but Ardyn doesn't look back.

He never does, but Noctis never fails to say 'hello' and 'goodbye' to each encounter.

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

As Noctis ages, he has Carbuncle tell him about the Crystal - Eos' heart - and about the elder Gods that Carbuncle is and is not a part of.

 _"I'm a Messenger,"_ his companion says one dream, when they're out in the forests of Tenebrae.  _"But I'm older than most of them - one of the first few they created. Originally, my duties were many more, but given there's twenty-four of us now instead of just two, I've had some more free time."_

Somewhere around them, Ardyn is softly singing to himself. Noctis likes the sound of his voice - it's husky, pleasantly so, rich and captivating. He's singing in what Carbuncle calls  _Solheim's tongue,_ and while Noctis can't understand the words, he thinks he understands what Ardyn is singing about from the tone alone. 

"So you protect kids while they sleep. Do you protect adults too?"

_"I do, yes. If they believe strongly enough."_

"Does Ardyn-?"

_"He never stopped believing. I was his companion for many moons, when he hung in Angelgard."_

Noctis grimaces. Angelgard, he's learned, is where great-grand-uncle Somnus took his brother to be hung in chains for the crime of being Scourge-infected. Even though Ardyn was his main healer, and the only one brave enough to try to tackle the Scourge by himself and provide relief to those who needed it.

"I'm glad he had you by his side," Noctis says softly. "Um. Do you think..."

Carbuncle tilts his head, ears flicking cutely.  _"Noct?"_

"Do you think he would like another friend?" Noctis asks softly. "I know... I know I have to kill him. I won't flinch away from that. But do you think he'd like to be friends, maybe, before I have to? Just so he won't be alone when he goes?"

Carbuncle says nothing for a long time. In the deep darkness, lights begin to appear near the roots of the thickest oaks. Noctis knows those are Tonberries - protectors of the forest. Tonberries can apparently sense evil, and they can tell if a Tonberry has died at someone's hands.

 _"I think,"_ Carbuncle says at last.  _"It can't hurt to try. But not now. He's...unstable, still. Give it a couple years."_

"You'll let me know when?" Noctis asks, as he hears his alarm go off, and the dream begins to dissolve. 

 _"I'll let you know when,"_ Carbuncle promises softly, but his gaze is on Ardyn in the distance, who the Tonberries have begun to gather around. Noctis sees Ardyn crouch down beside one - a blue one wearing a hood - smiling fondly. He reaches out, and the dream ends.

"Noctis, time to get up," Ignis says, tying the curtains back. "You'll be late if you don't hurry."

"Yeah, mkay Iggy," Noctis mumbles around a mouthful of pillow, trying not to forget everything Carbuncle said as he rises. 

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

He's dreaming about picking mushrooms and peppers along the countryside when the sensation of eyes skitters across his scalp and back like fingers. He straightens, peering around carefully - Carbuncle is no longer his constant companion through the still-lucid dreams he has, the little fox spirit far busier with the number of daemon sightings increasing.

Noctis knows whose responsible for  _those,_ and he wants to say something, but Carbuncle has said so yet, so he holds off.

Still. There are certain creatures that can creep in through dreams, and Carbuncle's made it imperative that Noctis know how to defend himself from those kinds of creatures if he's ever not around to do it. The sensation of eyes is new, and he's cautious as he peers around, looking closely at the edges of the rocks and the trees, where its easiest for something to blend in.

Fingers on his nape, chilled, quick, send him spinning around--

Ardyn catches him neatly, gold eyes inquisitive as he holds Noctis with a single hand to the hip. "Well now. What have we here?"

"Ardyn," Noctis gasps, and then covers his mouth when he remembers  _he's not supposed to say anything._

Ardyn tilts his head, his hat making the shadows over his eyes that much more ominous.  "Oh? Do you know me, little dream-walker?"

His hand moves up, caressing his spine as Ardyn himself takes a step forward. The basket of goodies drops numbly from Noctis' fingers as one of his own hands comes up to press against Ardyn's chest. Everything always runs so cold in these dreams, but Ardyn feels like a furnace beneath his hand.

Evidently, he must be the same. "Interesting," Ardyn murmurs softly, reaching up to play with the fine hairs on the back of his neck, eyes cataloging the shiver it gets him. "You're certainly a reactive little thing."

"Stop touching me, and I'll stop reacting," Noctis gasps, and cries out when Ardyn pushes a hand beneath his shirt. Ardyn hisses through his teeth like it sears him - it feels like touching a live wire for Noctis. 

"What  _are_ you?" Ardyn demands, stepping closer still, and Noctis doesn't dare demand he stop, can't, not when he can practically  _feel_ the invisible strings Carbuncle spent so much time talking about winding around them, tighter and tighter, until they're about ready to  _snap._ "Why are you here?"

Noctis thinks maybe he starts to say something - something about  _us_ and  _you_ and  _Chosen King,_ but before he can complete the thought he's jerked from the dream.

He shrieks as he comes awake to cold water pelting him down from a shower head in his bathroom, Gladio roaring in laughter behind the curtain as he flails to turn the knobs off in his haste.

"Told you that'd get him up Iggy!" He hollers out the door. "N-not like he needed any help with that. Oh god, my sides."

Cheeks burning red, Noctis succeeds at getting the shower turned off, and flings the curtain back. "The hell are you talking about? What was that  _for?!"_

Gladio leers playfully at him, gazed fixed downward. "Aww, did I interrupt your good dream, Prince?"

It takes Noctis a second to feel what he means, and then his face burns red as he hastily throws the curtain back over himself again, crossing his legs in a desperate attempt to dampen the hard-on he's apparently sporting. "I hate you, Gladio," he groans, embarrassment doing nothing to make the situation better. 

Gladio, utter bastard that he is, just laughs harder as he leaves. "Hurry up and get changed, brat. Training starts in ten, whether you're 'at attention' or not!"

His sole fortune in all this, Noctis thinks as he bites on the hem of his shirt and shoves a hand down his pants, is that Ardyn got him wound up enough to where it doesn't take him long to finish. 

Even if the resulting orgasm makes his eyes cross and everything behind his dick ache in a really sweet way, at least he can deal with this correctly.

(And if he lands Gladio on  _his_ ass in a fit of spite-filled vengeance later, all the better.)

 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

 

Noctis has scarcely set foot in the realm of dreams that night when the dream is  _yanked_ out from beneath him, and in a swirl of white and silver they're back in Altissia, sitting at a little candlelit cafe tucked away out of the rain. The gondolas swan by, the faces of the people in it blurred as usual. 

Across from him, Ardyn watches him take it all in with a predator's patience, drinking in  his reactions. "That's better," he says, when Noctis meets his gaze, "isn't it? Far cozier than our last little meeting."

"Why here?" Noctis asks, feeling his heart hammer in his throat. "This place in particular?"

"Ah, an old secret hideaway of mine," Ardyn says. "One that serves excellent coffee. You drink?"

"Not like Ignis does, but enough."

"Ignis?" Ardyn's eyes gleam like a raven whose found a particularly shiny coin at the name drop. "Family?"

"A friend. And no, I won't tell you his last name."

Ardyn hums, gaze still locked onto his. "So, you never did give me your name. Given you know who  _I_ am, it's only right I learn the name of my little dreamer, hm?"

Carbuncle's warned him Ardyn will know him by name - he's known of the prophecy between them for far longer than Noctis has. And there's a chance he might not react  _well._ But Noctis has gone too far to worry now - if he dies in the dream, he won't suffer in real life, no matter what arcane things Ardyn does.

So instead he leans back in his seat, and tries to remain as calm as possible when he says, "It's Noctis. Noctis Lucis Caelum."

Ardyn's expression is terribly calm. The silence between them sits, pregnant and vicious in it's own way. Beneath the table, Noctis grips his pants, and tries not to flinch. 

"What a curious name," Ardyn says softly at last, but he neither blinks nor moves. Noctis is reminded of those wildlife documentaries, with the great coeurls that sit so very still right before they snap out. "Rather... regal. If I didn't know any better, I would say you were royalty."

Now or never, Noctis thinks, and blindly charges. "No games, Ardyn," he says. "If you're going to get upset or try to kill me, do it. I've spent the last seventeen years waiting for you, I would prefer to know whether my plan is going to go up in smoke or not."

Ardyn's gaze burns through him. Noctis doesn't dare blink, or look away. 

"And you think," Ardyn says again at last, and there's a terrible undercurrent of darkness behind his voice. "Seventeen years is  _long?"_

"No," Noctis says, thinking of his father, and his impossible calm in the face of swaggering aggression from noblemen. "It's long to me because I haven't lived as long as you have. But if I have my way, you won't live much longer either. I'm not going to run, Ardyn. Not from you, or what you need. But I'm not going to play the game the way the Gods have devised, either."

"Their way is the  _only way,_ fool," Ardyn snarls softly, and now the rage starts to come out. "Then again, a soft little creature like  _you--"_

"A soft little creature like me has plans that you can't even begin to comprehend," Noctis snaps back. "My  _soft little creature brain_ has spent the last seventeen years for you to pull your head out of your ass so I can give you the death you  _want._ The death you should have had  _two-thousand four hundred and seventy-one years ago, Ardyn Lucis Caelum."_

Ardyn stands, and the table is thrown aside. Black ichor drips from his mouth and eyes, eyes that are glowing with a reddish tint that makes Noctis' stomach clench.

" _ **Do not,"**_ he screams,  ** _"SAY THAT NAME!"_**

"Or what," Noctis says, calmly standing, looking Ardyn right in the eye even as his legs shake. "Or you'll kill me? Hunt me down every time I dream and rip my throat open? Burrow into my guts and hang me from my own intestines? Well then, do it, you great bastard." 

He snatches one of Ardyn's hands up and presses it up against his chest, right over where his thundering heart lies. "Go ahead, start at the top and work your way down if you want it so bad. I'm sure there's plenty of me to play with! Otherwise, shut up and sit down and  _listen,_ because I am not your enemy in this! I might look like Somnus, but I'm not him, Ardyn. I'm trying to  _help_ you, and Carbuncle's told me enough to where I don't  _want_ this to end in violence! Please!"

The silence returns, as Noctis waits, one hand holding Ardyn's to his chest, the other clenched tight at his side. He means what he says - he doesn't want this to end like Carbuncle's been implying it has to end, with them both dead and a dawn neither of them will live to see rushing towards them. He wants to give Ardyn the death he desires, and he wants to keep his kingdom safe from threats, and he wants the world to remain untouched by anymore darkness.

But it takes two to tango, as the saying goes, and the King of Light can't do this alone. So Noctis waits as Ardyn stares down at him with eyes that aren't human, listening to the eerie echo of multiple pairs of carnivorous teeth gnashing and grinding together behind his lips. 

"I wonder," Ardyn murmurs at last, "Is it lack of fear that drives your boldness? Or is it stupidity?"

"It's neither," Noctis says. "But there's no reason to go tearing about the world and causing destruction and death when I'm right here, and willing to work to give you the death you want. That's just a waste of energy, Ardyn. What's the point of working against me when you could work  _with me,_ and get what you want that much quicker?"

The fingertips against his chest tap, and Noctis swallows, waiting. 

"Perhaps," Ardyn says at last, and pulls his hand away. "You have a point."

The dream swirls, and this time they're out closer to the docks, rain falling down around them. On the table, there is a fine line up of cakes and steaming hot tea waiting to be drunk. 

"Consider this a reward for your boldness, Noctis. But do mind your tongue next time, or you  _will_ find yourself without one." There's still too many teeth behind that smile, but Noctis nods and sits again, laying one of the napkins across his knee as he's been taught while Ardyn slices two small bits of cake apart and lays one in front of him, the perfect mimicry of genteel behavior once again.

"Now then," he says behind the first sip of tea. "Tell me this plan of yours."


End file.
